The Church at Corinth was the most carnal Church full of extremes, yet when Paul wrote to them he began his letter thus:

1 Cor 1:2To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints(Holy ones), with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

Paul knew he couldn’t change the Corinthians by appealing to the law, instead he always pointed them back to who they were in Christ!

Meditation Point: We are made holy through the new birth in Christ Jesus!

Heb 10:10 We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The Old Covenant: was a conditional covenant. If kept, it would bring blessing – if disobeyed it would bring cursing!

We see this oft-repeated cycle in the history of the nation of Israel. When the people obeyed God, He was pleased with them and would bless them, when they disobeyed Him, He would often allow them time to change, but if they persisted in their sin, He would become angry and judge them and visit them with a curse in the form of punishment!

This produced in the people a fear of God

We can see this very clearly in this vision of the prophet Isaiah:

Isa 6:1-8 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim, and one cried to another and said: “ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: “ Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “ Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.”

Isaiah was completely undone and his sin exposed when in the presence of God. He was in great fear and expectant that God would punish him. Thankfully God relented and instead cleansed Isaiah of his sin!

The New Covenant: is an unconditional covenant in the sense that Jesus as man’s representative fulfilled all of God’s law completely to every jot and title!

Mt 5:17 Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil.

He took the punishment upon Himself that should have been upon mankind so that sin could not only be forgiven but taken away.

Isa 53:4-5 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

On the cross, Jesus exhausted completely the fiery judgment and anger of God against all sin, past, present and future!

It is Christ’s obedience as a man who now frees God to visit man with His salvation. The only work for man to do is receive the salvation that God offers!

Rom 5:19 For as by one man’s disobedience (Adam) many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience (Christ) many will be made righteous.

As a believer, when we sin, fall short or make mistakes, we no longer need fear God’s punishment because we know Jesus exhausted that punishment on the cross 2000 yrs ago.

Our only response is to point to Jesus obedience and say, “Thank you lord that Jesus took the punishment for all my sin. His blood has washed all my sin away, therefore I now receive your forgiveness. I no longer need fear you but revel in your unconditional love!”

Meditation Point: Jesus has exhausted all of God’s judgment and anger against sin upon the cross. I can now enjoy a relationship with God that is free from fear or punishment!

This teaching states that when nations or people sin against God, He allows them to go so far, then draws a line in the sand and says, “Thus far and no further!”

Subsequently He releases His judgment upon them in the form of earthquakes, tsunamis, famine, terrorism and all kinds of general mishaps.

To arrive at a correct understanding of this issue we will look at God’s judgement under the Old and New Covenants.

Old Covenant: When nations and people’s turned their backs on God, He first sent a prophet to warn them of the dire consequences of continuing in their sin. If they failed to heed the warning, He would send judgement upon them in the form of catastrophe’s, foreign invasion etc.

Read Isa 14:22-32. Isa Ch 17.

Babylon: Isa 14:22-26“For I will rise up against them,”says the Lord of hosts,“and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, and offspring and posterity,”says the Lord.“I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and marshes of muddy water;I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,”says the Lord of hosts. (NKJV)

Israel:Isa 17:4,10,11“In that day it shall come to pass that the glory of Jacob will wane, and the fatness of his flesh grow lean.Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold, therefore you will plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings;In the day you will make your plant to grow, and in the morning you will make your seed to flourish;But the harvest will be a heap of ruins in the day of grief and desperate sorrow.

New Covenant: When God sent His Son to die on the cross, He accomplished a number of things:

a)He offered His Son as a sacrifice to take the punishment of sin for the whole world, past, present and future. (Heb 7:27)

2 Cor 5:19It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favour with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses [but cancelling them], and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favour). (AMP)

We can see through these scriptures that God judged all sin, past, present and future in His Son Jesus Christ, 2000 yrs ago!

Today, God is not judging nations and people for their sin – on the contrary He is demonstrating His love to them:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

So we see that the law covenant judges sin but the grace covenant has (past tense) forgiven all sin.

Instead of Christians holding up placards proclaiming God’s judgement against homosexuality – They should be placarding the good news that Jesus loves the homosexual!

Meditation Point: In the New Covenant God forgave all sin, past, present and future at the cross. God no longer judges the world, He loves it!

Rom 4:8Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.” (NIV)

When it comes to God forgiving all our sins, there are those who teach we must keep short accounts with God. By this they mean that any sin we commit we must confess and ask God’s forgiveness, because to them, any unconfessed sin will:

a)Break our fellowship with God – your sins have separated between you and your God.(Isa 59:2)

b) God will not answer our prayers. (Isa 59:2)

So we mustkeep short accounts with God if we are to expect a continuing relationship with Him and His blessing in our lives.

Let’s look at how God dealt with sin under the covenants:

The Old Covenant— Forgiveness operated on acase by case model, hence every time a person sinned, the priest would offer an animal blood sacrifice and the person would confess and ask for forgiveness. (Ps 51:1-4)

If a person failed to confess and forsake their sin they would not prosper:

Prov 28:13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

Many Christians today use this Old Covenant model in dealing with their sin in relationship to God.

The New Covenant— Forgiveness operates on a once for all time and eternity model!Christ as our sacrifice offered His bloodonce to obtain forgiveness and removal of all sin, past, present and future! (Jn 1:29, Eph 1:7)

Heb 10:12 This man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

Under the Old Covenant it was man who had to take the initiative in coming to God to deal with his sin. But under the New Covenant it was God in Christ who took the initiative to come to man, removing his sin once for all time and eternity:

2 Cor 5:19 God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (NIV)

Heb 10:16-18 “This is the covenant that I will make with them says the Lord: “ Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

If God at the cross has already forgiven, forgotten and no longer counts our sin against us, all we need do is receive it, thank God for it, rise up and move on!

This is the total freedom that God designed for man when He dealt with sin at the cross. At a stroke, it removes the vast amounts of time, energy and strength that we spend confessing and asking God to remove our sin.

It also removes sin consciousness that forces man to continually look inwards and plagues him with guilt and condemnation!

Take time to meditate on the verses below. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to the truth of forgiveness in Christ.

Heb 10:1-4 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. (NKJV)

Heb 10:16-18“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord:“Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. (NKJV)

Meditation Point: God has dealt with and removed sin completely from man’s life. All I needs do when I sin is receive God’s forgiveness, thank Him and move on without a backward glance!

Footnote: If we sin against another person, we must still go to them and confess and ask their forgiveness because we operate with them on the case by case model.

God forgiving all our sins – there are those who teach -

We must keep short accounts with God – By this they mean that any sin we commit we must confess and ask God’s forgiveness- Because to them, any unconfessed sin will:

REPENTANCE: Reversal of a decision, a change of mind, a change of purpose, compunction for guilt.

The only phrase included here that could be linked to confession of sin is – ‘A compunction for guilt’, which means a sorrowing for what we’ve done; and that’s what it was under the Old Covenant.

But now under the New Covenant, God has dealt with sin once and for all and there’s no longer any need to sorrow, be guilty or mourn over our sin!

Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. (NKJV)

Can you see how confusing repentance with confession moves people away from the truth of the gospel of grace and traps people in a life of bondage to sin.

When we understand that repentance means to change our mind towards Christ because He has forgiven all our sins, repentance becomes something to rejoice and joy in!

Repentance: Granted By God — We’ve evolved this idea that repentance towards God is something we choose to do. On the contrary, repentance is something that can only come from God.

Acts 5:31 Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. (NKJV)

Acts 11:18 When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “ Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.” (NKJV)

Repentance from God comes in the form of revelation from His word.

When God quickens His word to our spirit, He always releases faith to put His word into action. This is repentance because it enables us to change our mind leading to a transformation of our behaviour.

Rom 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word (Rhema: Revelation) of God. (NKJV)

Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Repentance is inward change by the power of God’s grace! Any other kind of repentance is dead works. (Eph 4:22-24)

New Covenant repentance is exchangingthe dead works of the flesh and embracing the good works of the Spirit!

Meditation Point: Repentance towards God is an inward change of the heart facilitated by the power of the Holy Spirit.